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In The Press -- Labor

The Hard Truth of Immigration
By Robert J. Samuelson, Newsweek, June 6, 2005
       The "huge and largely uncontrolled inflow of unskilled Latino workers into the United States is increasingly sabotaging the assimilation process" of immigrants, says Robert J. Samuelson, one of the world's leading journalists on the topic of economics.
       Samuelson notes a recent study completed by Harvard economists George Borjas and Lawrence Katz which found that Mexican immigrants in particular, especially unskilled illegal immigrants, are largely relegated to low-wage, dead-end jobs. The study also found that the children of Mexican immigrants do not advance either in levels of education or in the job market.
       Samuelson also notes that the Pew Hispanic Center found that inflation-adjusted weekly earnings for all Hispanics, both foreign and American-born, has actually dropped by over 2 percent for the last two consecutive years.
       Samuelson writes: "For today's Mexican immigrants (legal or illegal), the closest competitors are tomorrow's Mexican immigrants (legal or illegal). The more who arrive, the harder it will be for existing low-skilled workers to advance."

60 Illegal Immigrants Arrested in 6 U.S. States
Dow Jones International News, Dateline Beaumont, Texas, May 20, 2005
       Federal agents arrested 60 illegal immigrants working at industrial plants across the United States.
       Michael J. Garcia, assistant secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is quoted as saying those arrested "had access to sensitive critical infrastructure locations and therefore pose a serious homeland security threat.... Not only are their identities in question, but given their illegal status, these individuals are vulnerable to potential exploitation by terrorist and other criminal organizations."
       The illegal immigrants -- from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras -- were contracted by Brock Enterprises to work at petrochemical refineries, power plants, air cargo and pipeline facilities located in Texas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma.
       The workers were arrested on administrative immigration violations but could face federal criminal charges if they are found to have re-entered the United States after deportation or for using fraudulent documents to gain employment.

Many New Jobs Going to Noncitizens
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times, Dateline Washington, June 16, 2004
       A study conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center found that immigrants are filling nearly three out of every 10 new jobs being created in the United States.
       Almost 29 percent of the jobs are going to immigrants who are not U.S. citizens, although noncitizens account for fewer than 9 percent of all those holding jobs in the United States.
       The report also found that the U.S. economic recovery was not resulting in wage growth, at least for most Latino immigrants. The median weekly earnings for Latinos dropped from $402 in the first quarter of 2003 to $395 during the same period this year.
       Rakesh Kochhar, the labor economist who prepared the report, is quoted as saying: The growth in the supply of labor has surely contributed to keeping wages down."
       Click here for links to the full report entitled Latino Labor Report, First Quarter, 2004: Wage Growth Lags Gains in Employment, the press release and press conference comments.

Immigrant Competition Shown To Depress Wages
By Brian DeBose, The Washington Times, May 5, 2004
       U.S. citizens who are high school dropouts and minorities face the stiffest competition for jobs from immigrant laborers, according to a recent study completed by the Center for Immigration Studies.
       According to Harvard University professor George J. Borjas, who drafted the study based on U.S. census data from 1960 to 2000, American workers are earning an average of $1,700 less than they otherwise would be.
       According to a quote taken from the study: "Statistical analysis shows that when immigration increases the supply of workers in a skill category, the earnings of native-born workers in that same category fall."
       DeBose writes: "In 1986, the United States gave amnesty to illegal immigrants, opening a floodgate for employers to legally hire an estimated 2.7 million new workers. The economic effects of that amnesty did not appear until the mid-1990s."
       See the full study: Increasing the Supply of Labor Through Immigration: Measuring the Impact on Native-born Workers, May 2004, by Dr. George J. Borjas.

Testimony of Eduardo Aguirre, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security
Before the Senate Judiciary Committee
Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship
Regarding the President Bush’s Proposed Immigration Reform
February 12, 2004
       Excerpts from Aguirre's testimony:
       "The President feels strongly that the Temporary Worker Program should be simple and user friendly. We have the wisdom born of experience, the reliability of modern technology and human expertise and ingenuity to realize the President’s vision.
       "Simply put, I believe it is doable, and I raise five points that complement my reflections on process for the committee’s consideration.
       "First, enforcement is paramount to the Temporary Worker Program....
       "Second, the American worker comes first. The President has made it clear that this program would match a willing worker with a willing employer, when no American is filling or can be found to fill the job....
       "Third, the program will require incentives. One obvious incentive is enforcement, for the employer and the worker.... I contend the greater incentive is economic and social opportunity.
       "The President’s Temporary Worker Program will offer portability of investments. This will be instrumental in expanding individual participation in the increasingly interlinked worldwide economy, encouraging savings or even capitalization in a business, house or land in the home country....
       "Fourth, the program should be fair and not come at the expense of legal immigrants, who have respected our laws and earned their place in line....
       "Fifth, the program should be simple and user friendly – thus one that can be effectively administered...."
       See full remarks.

Bush Plan or Not, Illegal Immigrants Flock to the U.S.
By Deborah Tedford, Reuters News, Dateline Laredo, Texas, February 3, 2004
       The lure of jobs is the primary motivation for illegal immigrants trying to reach the United States, but the Bush administration's proposal to help millions of mostly Hispanic immigrants to legally join the U.S. work force may be encouraging more people to illegally cross the border, according to this report.
       In January 2004, border patrol agents apprehended 92,634 illegal immigrants -- the most for that month since 2001. January traditionally sees a surge of illegal border crossings as many Hispanics hope to find U.S. agricultural jobs in the upcoming planting season.
       But T.R. Bonner, president of the union representing Border Patrol agents, is reported as saying that illegal border crossings have increased by 10 to 11 percent since President Bush announced his immigration reform plan in January 2004. (See the White House fact sheet describing the plan.)
       The U.S. Border Patrol conducted an official poll of illegal immigrants arrested in January to see if they had been motivated to make the crossing based on Bush's announcement. Gloria Chavez, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman, is reported as saying the survey was designed to see if human smugglers -- "coyotes" -- are using the Bush proposal to round up more business. None of the survey results, however, were reported in this article.

Imagining Life Without Illegal Immigrants
By Dean E. Murphy, The New York Times, January 11, 2004
       How important are illegal immigrants to the U.S. economy? This article explores the question.
       According to a study done by The Pew Hispanic Center, a non-partisan research organization supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts, in 2001 there were 5.3 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. workforce. The study estimated that this figure included 700,000 restaurant workers, 250,000 household employees, and 620,000 construction workers. An additional 1.2 million illegal immigrants were engaged in farm work.
       What would happen if all of them left their jobs?
       According to George J. Borjas, professor of economics and social policy at Harvard University, there would be "a ripple effect" across the U.S. economy, but it wouldn't last long and it wouldn't affect all states.
       The 2000 U.S. Census shows that just 15 states accounted for all but 13 percent of illegal immigrants. Most illegal immigrants are concentrated in California, Texas, New York, Illinois and Florida.

Fact Sheet: Fair and Secure Immigration Reform
White House Fact Sheet, January 7, 2004
       The White House announced on January 7 President Bush's proposal for a new temporary worker program to match willing foreign workers with willing U.S. employers when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs.
       The program would be open to new foreign workers, and to the undocumented immigrants currently employed in the United States.
       According to the White House fact sheet, the new program would allow workers who currently hold jobs "to come out of hiding and participate legally in America's economy while not encouraging further illegal behavior."
       Illegal immigration, the fact sheet says, "creates an underclass of workers, afraid and vulnerable to exploitation..... Workers risk their lives in dangerous and illegal border crossings and are consigned to live their lives in the shadows. Without harming the economic security of Americans, reform of our Nation's immigration laws will create a system that is fairer, more consistent, and more compassionate."
       It adds: "President Bush does not support amnesty because individuals who violate America's laws should not be rewarded for illegal behavior and because amnesty perpetuates illegal immigration." The President's proposal, the fact sheet says, offers only "temporary worker status to undocumented men and women now employed in the United States and to those in foreign countries who have been offered employment here."
       See the full text of the fact sheet.

Remarks by the President on Immigration Policy
White House Transcript, January 7, 2004
       In a speech delivered January 7, President Bush called for changes in U.S. immigration law, saying: "Out of common sense and fairness, our laws should allow willing workers to enter our country and fill jobs that Americans have are not filling. We must make our immigration laws more rational, and more humane. And I believe we can do so without jeopardizing the livelihoods of American citizens."
       See the full White House transcript.

Background Briefing by Conference Call on Immigration Policy
White House transcript, January 6, 2004
       Senior administration officials explained Bush's proposed immigration law reforms January 6 during an evening conference call with reporters.
       See the full transcript.

Bush Will Propose Plan on Illegals
By James G. Lakely and Joseph Curl, The Washington Times, January 6, 2004, 2003
and
Bush to Frame Migrant Policy
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times, Dateline Washington, January 6, 2004
       President Bush will soon propose changes to U.S. immigration policy, according to these reports.
       Under the plan, illegal immigrants from Mexico and possibly other countries could get green cards allowing them to legally work in the United States. Guest workers who pay Social Security would be able to collect benefits through their home country's retirement program.
       There are an estimated 8 to 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States; about 60 percent are thought to be from Mexico.
       President Bush is slated to meet with Mexican President Vicente Fox in Monterrey, Mexico, to discuss immigration issues at the January 12-13 Summit of the Americas.
       Both The Washington Times and Los Angeles Times quoted White House Spokesman Scott McClellan, who spoke to reporters January 5 aboard Air Force One en route St. Louis, Missouri.
       White House Fact Sheet.

Study Finds Demand Is a Factor Driving Human Trafficking
From The Washington File, International Information Programs, U.S. State Department, January 6, 2004
       Research announced by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) January 6 says that demands of the marketplace are a factor in causing human trafficking. Conducted by two British researchers in selected nations of Europe and Asia, the study suggests that the unregulated labor conditions of sex workers and domestic workers, and the abundant supply of such workers are factors behind the exploitation of migrants.
       Racism, xenophobia and prejudice against foreign workers were cited as important factors in fueling trafficking in illegal labor. "The racially/ethnically different worker is not perceived as an equal human being and so can be used and abused in ways that would be impossible in respect to workers of the same race/ethnicity," said IOM spokesperson Niurka Pineiro in a press briefing in Geneva January 6.
       See excerpt from January 6 IOM press briefing.

Net Immigration Rises by Millions: Illegal Aliens Expand Mass Influx
By Jerry Seper, The Washington Times, November 26, 2003
       About 1.4 million immigrants entered the United States in the last two years, and of these approximately a half-million entered illegally, according to a study done by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
       If this rate of immigrant influx continues, the study says, the United States in this decade will experience the most massive wave of immigration in its history.
       The FAIR study also found that rising immigration is unrelated to the availability of jobs in the United States.
       The study was based on the U.S. Census Bureau's annual population survey for 2000 through 2002 issued in April.

200,000 Illegal Immigrants Toiling in Canada's Underground Economy
By Marina Jimenez, The Globe and Mail, November 15, 2003
       The Canadian public is just starting to take a hard look at its population of some 200,000 illegal immigrants, according to this article.
       Jimenez writes: "Unlike the United States, whose eight million undocumented workers are studied and assisted by experts and community organizations, Canada still has relatively little public discourse about the extent to which illegal immigrants make up the labour market -- or exist here at all."
       "While 60 percent of illegal residents in the United States are 'border crossers' from Mexico," Jimenez writes, "most of Canada's illegal immigrants are failed refugee claimants and visitors who overstayed their visas."
       Don Devoretz, an economist at Simon Fraser University, is quoted as saying: "In the U.S. 30 percent of all foreigners who come to live there every year are illegals. In Canada, it's about 8 percent."
       Canada's Immigration Minister Denis Coderre recently announced a new program that would grant legal status to undocumented construction workers.
       It is estimated that there are about 76,000 illegal immigrants working in the construction industry in Ontario alone.

Report Shows Increase in Foreign Born Population Similar to 1990s Surge
By Genaro C. Armas, Associated Press Newswires, Dateline Washington, November 6, 2003
and
Center for Immigration Studies: Immigration in a Time of Recession; Unpublished Census Bureau Data Show Little Evidence of Slowdown
U.S. Newswire, Dateline Washington, November 6, 2003
       The economic downturn in the United States has not slowed the inflow of immigrants -- both legal and illegal -- according to a report by The Center for Immigration Studies, a non-profit research organization which examines immigration issues.
       The report, based on unpublished Census Bureau data collected earlier this year, found that immigration levels do not simply reflect the demand for labor in the United States. Steven Camarota, the Center's director of research and the report's author, is quoted as saying: "Immigration is driven mostly by the higher standard of living in the United States compared to immigrant-sending countries..."
       According to the report, 2.3 million adult immigrants entered the United States since 2000; about half were illegal.
       See the full report, Immigration in a Time of Recession: An Examination of Trends Since 2000.

Illegally in U.S., and Never a Day Off at Wal-Mart
By Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, November 5, 2003
       Illegal immigrants working for subcontractors responsible for cleaning the Wal-Mart stores across the United States were forced to work seven days a week, endure harsh conditions, and did not receive overtime compensation.
       The illegals came from Mexico, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and other distant countries. Their contractors did not provide health insurance, nor did they pay taxes, workers compensation, or Social Security.
       Greenhouse writes: "Industry experts and janitors said the contractors and subcontractors appeared to play a shell game, continually closing down, filing for bankruptcy and reincorporating under different names. Some closed without paying workers their last month's pay. Some insisted on a $2,000 finder's fee for providing foreigners with jobs."
       Richard Krpac, chief counsel for the Czech Embassy is quoted as saying: "There is a whole Mafia-like structure. They (the contractors) advertise on all these Web sites, and they try to erase all of people's doubts about it. If you're without work for two or three years, and you're trying to take anything, you may easily fall prey."
       U.S. federal agents raided 60 Wal-Mart stores on October 23 and arrested about 250 illegal immigrants. Authorities also searched the office of a Wal-Mart executive and seized boxes of papers. Prosecutors are said to have wiretaps and recordings of conversations between Wal-Mart officials and subcontractors.
       Wal-Mart uses about 100 contractors to provide the workers to clean about 1,000 of its 3,470 American stores. Wal-Mart reportedly had $245 billion in revenues last year.

Friend, Not Foe; Unions Step Up Campaign To Strengthen Workplace Rights for Illegal Immigrants
By Shawn Neidorf, Chicago Tribune, August 31, 2003
       The AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations -- a voluntary federation of 65 national and international labor unions) has changed its stance on illegal immigrant workers, according to this report.
       Neidorf writes: "As recently as 1985, the AFL-CIO supported employer sanctions for hiring illegal immigrants. But in 2000, it called for a repeal of the sanctions, noting that too many employers skirt the law and use it as a weapon against immigrants who seek to unionize....
       "Supporters of unionizing illegal immigrants," Neidorf writes, "say that bringing undocumented workers into the union helps the immigrants by raising their wages and giving them protection -- and that helps the rest of the workforce by taking away employers' incentive for favoring undocumented immigrants. And, of course, it adds to organized labor's dwindling ranks."

Hispanic Newcomers Skew Wages -- Study Calls for More Rules in Workplace and Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants
By Eduardo Porter, The Wall Street Journal, August 19, 2003
       Occupations in which Hispanic immigrants account for a quarter of the work force pay as much as 11 percent less than those where there are no new Latino immigrant men, according to a new study done by Lisa Catanzarite, a sociologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
       The new immigrants cluster in "brown collar" jobs -- such as construction, gardening or dish washing -- in metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Their influx into certain jobs depresses the wages for earlier immigrants as well as for native white workers, Catanzarite found.
       Noting that immigrant workers are willing to work for less money and less likely to defend their workplace rights, Catanzarite urges that minimum wage standards be enforced. She also recommends amnesty for illegal immigrants and strengthening their workplace protections.
       Catanzarite is quoted as saying: "Policies aimed at raising the social status of immigrants would protect native workers from both immigrant competition and brown-collar wage penalties."
       Porter, the author of this Wall Street Journal article, writes that there are more than 10 million Hispanic immigrants working in the United States. About an additional 400,000, most of them poor and low-skilled, arrive each year.

Gang Ways - Down on the Farm, a Tough Life
The Economist (London), August 2, 2003
       Gangmasters - the people who supply English farmers and food processors with workers - are getting a worse reputation than that they already had, according to this article.
       The estimated 850 to 1,100 gangmasters who ply their trade supply half the 72,000 casual workers in British horticulture; and they are now being accused of "flouting the law, dodging taxes, hiring illegal immigrants and treating their workers abominably," this article says.
       But as the demand for unskilled workers increases, more gangmasters are setting themselves up as "employment agencies" which depend on "subcontractors" to provide the actual bodies. It is these subcontractors, this article says, who are "the biggest worry. Difficult to trace, let alone prosecute, they are the most likely to be breaking the law and employing illegal immigrants. It is the small operators, too, that are most commonly mentioned in tales of worker abuse."

The West Discovers that It Profits from Human Trafficking
By Patrick Rahir, Agence France-Presse, August 1, 2003
       Trafficking people isn't all about supplying the world's sex industry, this article says. Human trafficking is increasingly moving people into slave-like conditions in non-competitive industries such as agriculture and textile production.
       The International Labour Organisation (ILO) says that the demand for cheap labor and curbs on legal immigration have created "a fertile breeding ground for illegal immigration and black-market labour, which often turned into forced labour," Rahir writes.
       The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has called on its 55 member countries to make human trafficking a criminal offense and to set up special units to combat it.

Cultural Revolution in Norfolk as Chinese Move In To Make a Legal -- or Illegal -- Living
By John Vidal, The Guardian (London), July 24, 2003
       King's Lynn in England is emerging as a Chinese human smuggling center, according to this article.
       It is estimated that last year alone, some 2,000 mainland Chinese appeared in the town and surrounding area. Authorities believe that most of them are illegal immigrants and most are working as farm laborers.
       Britain's Home Office is said to suspect that the Chinese illegal immigrants are being filtered into King's Lynn, Boston, Downham Market, Wisbech and other small towns by London crime syndicates, including Chinese triads and K14s.
       The Chinese are then picked up by disreputable local "gangmasters" -- people who employ cheap labor to hire out at a profit -- to do casual labor in the fields or factories.
       The Chinese workers are joining those from Lithuania, Russia, Portugal, Mecedonia, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine, and Bulgaria. When the European Union is enlarged next year, the United Kingdom "expects to be overwhelmed by east Europeans looking for better pay in British agribusiness," the author writes.
       An unnamed immigration officer is quoted as saying: "The scale of the problem is one where we have a number of people working for gangmasters, number unknown, who are themselves engaged in illegality of a variety of forms. Some of it is tax evasion, some of it is benefits, some of it is illegal working through those who are not entitled to work in the UK, some of it is criminality."
       CD Melton & Sons of Wisbech employ more than 30 Chinese to work in their strawberry fields. Stuart Melton is quoted as saying 95 percent of British horticulture is dependent on foreign labor and that Chinese workers are "pleasant, polite, obliging and helpful.... They'll keep going all hours if you let them."

Chinese Gangs Get Rich Harvest from Illegal Labourers
By Valerie Elliott and Adam Fresco, The Times (London), July 24, 2003
       Chinese people smugglers have saturated the market in Britain's urban restaurants, takeaways and rag trade, so they are moving into the countryside to supply cheap labor to farms and foodpacking factories.
       According to this article, local farmers are afraid that gangs might take over their businesses. Stuart Melton, a farmer who uses Chinese workers, is quoted as saying: "We are worried that we are in the firing line of the triads."
       According to this article, laborers are paid Pounds 7 (U.S. $11.37) per day. Most workers are left with only Pounds 2 (U.S. $3.25) per day, because they must pay for board and lodging and a "tax" to the gangsters.
       "Gangs have also brought protection rackets to the fields of East Anglia," the authors write, "threatening legal strawberry-pickers with violence unless they pay Pounds 40 (U.S. $65) a week, a large slice of their earnings."
       The problem is especially acute in King's Lynn, where the Chinese population has jumped in just a few months from 300 to 5,000. Gangsters are trying to take over legitimate Chinese businesses there to "launder" their cash.

Chinese Gangs Providing Illegal Immigrant Farm Workers
By James Lyons, The Press Association Limited, July 22, 2003
       Chinese people smugglers, or "snakeheads, "are developing a lucrative new market providing cheap labour for British agriculture," Lyons writes.
       According to his report, several thousand illegal Chinese are working as pickers and packers for as little as 2 pounds (U.S. $3.17) per hour.

Undermining American Workers: Record Numbers of Illegal Immigrants Are Pulling Wages Down for the Poor and Pushing Taxes Higher
By Fred Dickey, Los Angeles Times Magazine, July 20, 2003
       This long feature story argues that the growing number of illegal immigrants is making America's own poor more destitute.
       Dickey writes: "The only leverage unskilled workers have is scarcity of labor." But the estimated 8 million illegal immigrants (half are thought to be Mexican) in the United States are preventing unskilled citizens from working their way up the economic ladder, he says. Illegal immigrants have no bargaining power with their employers, so wages get driven down, he writes.
       Dickey acknowledges that many illegal immigrants are hard workers, but he disputes the perception that they do work most Americans refuse to do themselves. He quotes Roy Beck, executive director of Numbers USA Education and Research Foundation, a Washington, D.C. organization devoted to immigration control, as saying: "Americans won't work like slaves, like serfs. Americans want to be paid and treated fairly."
       According to Dickey: "Illegal labor has led to other illegalities. The most pervasive is the untaxed cash transaction." This "underground economy," he says, pushes some businesses to compete by also cutting legal corners and increases the tax burden on honest taxpayers.

Sex Slavery Is Not Quite the Scam It's Cracked Up to Be: Eastern European Women Not Idiots. Dire Poverty at Home Makes Prostitution in the West an Attractive Proposition
By Phelim McAleer, The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec) Dateline Romania, April 24, 2003
       Most of the "trafficked" Eastern European women know they are going to lives as prostitutes in the West, says this report. The women are usually smuggled by people they know, enticed by the promise of high wages.
       According to Assistant Chief Constable Andy Felton, a British police officer working in Romania as part of an effort to stem illegal immigration to Britain, most of the women were prostitutes before they ever left Romania.
       Felton's assessment is seconded by Major Marin Banica, who formerly was Romania's most senior police officer investigating trafficking. Banica is quoted as saying: "Very few (of the women) go abroad without knowing exactly why they are going."
       "For brothel owners," McAleer writes, "experience is essential; it makes poor business sense to trick unsuspecting girls into the trade."
       According to McAleer, accounts of widespread cruelty by brothel owners do not stand up to scrutiny. "That is not to say there are not bad and crooked brothel owners," McAleer writes. "But the women come West voluntarily and very quickly learn through word of mouth which establishments to avoid."

Study Says Thousands of Laborers Wait in Gathering Sites for Jobs
Associated Press Newswires, Dateline New York, April 11, 2003
       A study on day labor in New York says that illegal immigrants make up a large proportion of the estimated 8,000 people who congregate at 57 places around the metropolitan area hoping for offers of hourly jobs.
       Day Labor in New York is the work of Abel Valenzuela, professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, and Edwin Melendez, professor at New School University.
       According to the authors, the day laborers they studied earned, on average, between $7.61 and $9.37 per hour. They sent 20 to 30 percent of their earnings to their home countries, for an average of $3,641 per year.
       But 50 percent of the participants in the study said their employers failed to pay them at least once; 60 percent said they had been paid less than what their employers had promised.
       See the executive summary for Day Labor in New York: Findings from the NYDL Survey

Jobs Training Leaves Gap at Garment Factories
By Daisy Hernandez, The New York Times, March 13, 2003
       Many long-time workers are leaving the garment factories of Chinatown for paid job-training classes they hope will lead to better-paying jobs.
       "Chinatown's garment factories are already reeling from the export of work to overseas factories, fashion industry problems and the difficulties of manufacturing in New York City," Hernandez writes.
        The September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center also hurt Chinatown businesses. In response, a relief organization called The September 11 Fund was established. It makes paid training in fields like hotel hospitality, truck driving and home health care available to some 1,500 workers who lost their jobs or income because of the attacks .
       Dislocated workers who qualify get a weekly stipend of $300 for 25 to 35 hours of training a week for three months. That is about the same or more than garment factory workers make.
       Editor's note: Chinatown's garment industry has provided attractive job opportunities to many Chinese legal and illegal immigrants. See: September 11 Hurt New York's Chinatown, But Human Smuggling Continues to Flourish

IOM Calls for an End to Violence Against Migrant Women and Trafficking
IOM No. 857, Dateline Geneva, March 7, 2003
       The International Organization of Migration (IOM), in honoring International Women's Day, called for an end to violence against migrant women and the trafficking of women and children.
       According to IOM's World Migration Report 2003, almost 50 percent of the world's 175 million migrants are women. In some areas women make up an even greater percentage: Sri Lankan women working overseas represent 65 percent of all Sri Lankan migrant workers; Filipino women account for 70 percent of all Filipino migrant workers.
        But with greater mobility for women comes greater exposure to forced labor, sexual exploitation and violence, the report says. Women are also more likely to accept jobs with dangerous working conditions and lower wages.
       Full text of the IOM news release.

Companies With Immigrant Labor Thriving
Associated Press Newswires, Dateline Denver, Colorado, February 16, 2003
       "Labor brokers" -- companies that provide illegal immigrant labor to contractors responsible for building sites across the United States -- are thriving, despite a poor economy and federal labor laws.
       Contractors, according to this report, are dropping full-time employees to cut costs and are using illegal aliens instead.
       Mike Nobles, who runs a $6-million-per-year Tennessee-based "labor broker" company, says contractors like illegal immigrants because they are cheap, union-free labor. Nobles is quoted as saying: "You don't have to worry about workman's comp payments with Mexicans because they are afraid to go to the hospital. They're not going to file a big claim and sue you like the Americans are. That's what this boils down to. We have these people intimidated."
       Will Collette studied labor brokers for the AFL-CIO in Washington. (The AFL-CIO -- American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations -- is a federation of 65 American labor unions and includes more that 13 million members.) He estimates that "labor brokers" for both commercial and residential construction may provide 1 million workers, or a sixth of the industry's labor force.

Disputes Over Pay Costing Illegal Workers
By Dawn House, The Salt Lake Tribune, October 27, 2002
       Some U.S. employers are taking advantage of greater post-9/11 security measures by threatening to report their undocumented immigrant employees to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) if they complain of pay disparities.
       The Mexican consulate in Salt Lake City, Utah, receives about eight calls a day from undocumented workers who complain of getting pay cuts or no pay at all when they complete jobs.
       Mexican Consul Martin Torres is quoted as saying: "It's disheartening that vulnerable people are being exploited. We have a close relationship with the INS so I can say that the agency will not respond to those types of calls. We are also working with the U.S. Labor Department to report this type of illegal activity."
       See information regarding the U.S. Department of Justice Worker Exploitation Task Force.

The Rust Belt Refugees Who Work the Streets of Paris
South China Morning Post, September 15, 2002
       Chinese women who have themselves smuggled to France to escape the grinding poverty of China's economically depressed northeast are increasingly showing up on the streets of Paris as prostitutes, according to this article.
       Paris police say the increase in the numbers of Chinese prostitutes became noticeable within the last two years.
       France has an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 prostitutes; 60 percent are believed to be foreigners. French public anger is rising along with the number of prostitutes, as is the anger of the Chinese community of legal residents of France.
       Isabelle Liu, who arrived from the southeastern Chinese city of Wenzhou 16 years ago and runs a children's clothing shop, is quoted as saying: "These women shame all Chinese....Until now, Chinese have enjoyed a good reputation among French people, as discreet and hardworking. These women are destroying our good name."
       But for many Chinese women who enter France illegally, prostitution is the only way to pay off the money they owe to their smugglers.
       A woman identified only as Li was smuggled into France by road, after a rail trip across Russia. She is quoted as saying: "We live in Shenyang. Everyone in my family is out of work. My husband and I lost our jobs at a state electrics factory. We have no money to put our son through school. The northeast has no future.
       "When I came to France last year from northeast, this is not what I wanted to do. But my family took out a loan of 80,000 yuan (HAKE$75,200; US$9,677) to get me here and we have to repay it within a year. I cannot find other work. This is the only thing I can do. My husband and family do not know about this."

Records Checks Displace Workers; Social Security Letters Cost Immigrants Jobs
By Mary Beth Sheridan, The Washington Post, August 6, 2002
       As many as 100,000 immigrants may have lost their jobs because they could not or would not adequately respond to the Social Security Administration's effort to match workers' names and Social Security numbers to information on the Administration's files.
       Earlier this year, the Social Security Administration sent out letters to more than 800,000 businesses asking employers to clear up discrepancies in information regarding their workers. Carolyn Cheezum a Social Security spokeswoman, is quoted as saying: "We were not out targeting anybody, any group. It was strictly to improve wage reporting."
       In recent years, the Social Security Administration has received increasing amounts of money from taxpayers whose names or Social Security numbers don't match information in its files. "Such contributions from workers and employers totaled $4.9 billion in 1999, the most recent year for which data were available," Sheridan writes.
       Social Security's records check has highlighted "an open secret," Sheridan writes. "A huge number of illegal immigrants work 'on the books,' providing stolen or made-up Social Security numbers to employers and having U.S. taxes deducted from their paychecks."
       As more employers receive Social Security Administration letters of inquiry, workers who can't clear up discrepancies either are fired or quietly leave.

Migrants Forced Out of Jobs; Social Security Cracks Down on Fake Numbers
By Herman Rozemberg, The Arizona Republic, July 6, 2002
       Thousands of illegal immigrants who obtained jobs using fake or stolen Social Security numbers are being fired or are simply walking away from their jobs for fear of being caught and getting deported.
       The U.S. government is getting tougher on document fraud in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The Social Security Administration has mailed out some half-million letters so far this year asking employers to check into mismatches showing a Social Security number that doesn't match the agency's records. More small businesses than ever are receiving government inquiries, according to this report.
       The Social Security Administration (SSA) passes information to the Internal Revenue Service (INS), which decides which cases to investigate. But federal law prevents SSA from sharing Social Security numbers with the INS.
       "The two agencies do work together on Operation Tarmac, an ongoing series of roundups of immigrants who use fake or stolen Social Security numbers to get high-security-clearance jobs at airports across the country," Rozemberg writes. "Nearly 200,000 employees in 94 airports have been checked out and 547 arrested."
       Employers who are found to be deliberately reporting wrong document numbers face a $50 fine for each violation with a maximum penalty of $100,000.

Garment Sweatshops Still Thrive in U.S.
By Sherwood Ross, The Globe and Mail, July 3, 2002
       The 600,000 employees -- a number of them illegal immigrants -- of the U.S. garment industry are often victimized by their employers, according to this report.
       Robert Ross, a sociologist at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, is quoted as saying: "Employers break the law by not paying overtime, by cheating the workers, by underreporting their hours, and by operationally taking the piece rate so low that a worker can't make a reasonable wage."
       Surveys conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor have shown that in Los Angeles and New York -- the country's two biggest garment-producing centres -- 60 to 70 percent of employers do not comply with minimum wage and overtime laws.
       Part of the problem is that the Labor Department doesn't have enough inspectors to police this growing industry.

Down and Out in Manhattan's Chinatown: Job Losses Caused by September 11 Traumatize Community, But Aid Is in Short Supply
By Mei Fong, The Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2002
       New York's Chinatown, one of the poorest communities in lower Manhattan, is still struggling to recover from the economic devastation caused by the September 11 terrorist attacks, Fong writes.
       In the three months following September 11, one in four Chinatown workers lost a job. Pay for the 70 percent of Chinatown's garment workers who managed to keep their jobs has plummeted from an average of $207 per week to $112 per week, according to a study released April 4 by the Asian American Federation of New York, a nonprofit community-service group.
       Pay for restaurant workers dropped from $320 per week to $124, the study says. Retail shop assistants' weekly pay dropped to $160 from $344. Hairdressers are now earning $84 per week; down from $316. Travel ticketing agents, who once averaged $607 per week, now make do with $292. The loss of work and reduced pay has in turn affected other Chinatown industries, Fong points out.
       The state of New York has funded retraining programs in computers, English language and home health-care for laid-off workers. About 350 unemployed people have signed up since January, but 300 people had to be turned away because they were undocumented. The funding for these retraining programs is expected to run out by this September.
       Even with retraining, Chinatown workers have a hard time finding jobs, mostly because they lack adequate command of the English language. Many Chinatown workers who have obtained certification as home health-care aides, for example, still don't have jobs, even though the New York Department of Labor projects over 2,000 job openings per year for home health-care attendants.

Business Desk (Story on Tyson Foods, Inc.)
By Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times, April 3, 2002
       Poultry giant Tyson Foods, Inc. is being sued under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute. The civil lawsuit was filed April 2 in a federal court in Tennessee on behalf of four U.S. citizen employees who contend that Tyson "sought out illegal immigrants because they accept below-market wages and 'deplorable' working conditions," Cleeland writes.
       "The suit is the fourth of its type filed by Chicago corporate attorney Howard Foster, who has received some support from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based group that favors strict immigration laws and enforcement," Cleeland says.
       Foster, who directs complex litigation for the firm of Johnson & Bell, is quoted as saying: "I'm not anti-immigrant....I would say I'm against illegal immigration, against the masses of illegals who are comining into this country illegally and depressing wages by as much as 30 percent."
       Tyson was indicted by the Justice Department in December 2001 on charges that it conspired to smuggle undocumented workers to 15 of its poultry plants located in the southern United States.
       "The prospect of treble damages under RICO could force employers to think hard before hiring undocumented workers," Cleeland writes. For more information on the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, see What is RICO?

Smuggling of Immigrants Is Continuing
By Rhonda Cook, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, January 22, 2002
       The Southeastern United States continues to attract illegal immigrants, thanks to an abundance of low-paying jobs, writes Cook. Lani Wong, chairman of the Atlanta chapter of the National Association of Chinese Americans, told Cook: "People want to make more money and more profit, and they want to take advantage of these people because they are undocumented."
        Day laborers, who depend on employers to pick them up and take them to jobs each day, are especially exploited, according to Wong. "I hear these horror stories of day laborers who work every day but by the time Friday comes and it's pay day, these people will not come and pick them up.... (T)hey (the workers) have no way of getting their money," Wong said.
       In March 2001, Immigration and Naturalization (INS) officials in the Atlanta district detained 99 suspected illegal immigrants from China, El Salvador, Indonesia, Mexico and other countries after raiding restaurants, apartments and houses. In August 1999, INS found 132 Chinese men in a compartment aboard a freighter in Savannah, Georgia. Six men were indicted in that case and received prison sentences ranging from two to seven years.

The Unfashionable Mr. Lam
By Elizabeth Kolbert, Mother Jones, September/October 2001
       Kolbert provides a portrait of Wing Lam, executive director of the Chinese Staff and Workers Association in New York City. Lam and his association have been working for the last 20 years to improve the working conditions for Chinese immigrants by serving as intermediaries between immigrant workers and labor enforcement agencies.
       The article describes the dismal conditions in garment sweatshops and restaurants, where workers put in long hours without overtime, are often not paid at all, and when they are, have their wages skimmed by their employers.
        "Much of Lam's work is anachronistic," Kolbert writes, "the labor conditions he is fighting have been illegal (in the United States) for more than half a century. But having a law on the books and having it enforced are, in this case, two entirely different things." Undocumented workers are especially exploited since they lack legal protection and feel they have no choice but to accept illegal working conditions.
       Kolbert quotes Lam as saying of the desperate Fuzhounese in New York: "People think work is better than no work. Unfortunately, the real truth is, even if you work 14 hours (per day), someone is willing to work 16 hours.... We ask workers' commitment to help other workers. That's the only way we have strength."

Inside New York's Sweatshops
By Bob Port, Daily News (New York), July 9, 2001
       Growing numbers of Fukienese garment workers owe more than $50,000 each to loansharks who paid off the snakeheads who brought them into the country illegally, according to this report. In New York, most of the garment factories employing illegal Chinese immigrants are clustered in the East Broadway section of Chinatown, but more "sweatshops" are popping up in Queens and in Sunset Park in Brooklyn.
       State inspectors investigating one garment factory in Sunnyside, Queens, found that the workers hadn't been paid in three weeks, a violation of state law. The women working there said they were getting $5.15 per hour, but "their behavior suggested they were really paid by the piece," according to this report.

Trio of Crashes Highlight Dangers Immigrants Face
By Joann Loviglio, Associated Press, June 22, 2001 See full text.
       Illegal immigrants desperate for jobs frequently fall prey to unscrupulous employers. "Alien smuggling and employing unauthorized aliens is not a victimless crime. People are abused and people die," says Kenneth J. Elwood, district director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

The New Face of Slavery
By Jorge Luis Mota, Exito! (a Spanish-language publication of the Chicago Tribune), January 18, 2001
       This investigative report finds that illegal Mexican workers are being hired through Chinese-owned employment agencies and forced to work in slave-like conditions at Chinese restaurants. Illegal immigrants told of being forced to work 14-hour days and being locked into their rooms at night. They were often paid late or not at all.
       While the focus of Mota's expose is on illegal immigrants in Chicago, Mota found that Hispanic workers hired by Chinese employment agencies are also sent to restaurants in other states. The states identified in the investigation are: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.